Home▸Hydrology▸Managed Aquifer Recharge: Engineering Infiltration Basins to Refill Urban Groundwater

💧 Managed Aquifer Recharge

An interactive 3D cutaway infiltration basin where you set storm intensity, basin footprint and soil hydraulic conductivity, toggle a sediment forebay, and watch stormwater pond, percolate through soil layers and raise the aquifer water table in real time.

Hydrology3DAdvanced60 FPS

A cutaway infiltration basin where stormwater ponds on the surface, percolates through filter sand and unsaturated soil, and slowly raises the aquifer water table below.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

Basin ponding depth is a balance between storm inflow and the soil's effective infiltration rate; skipping sediment pretreatment lets fine particles clog the basin floor, cutting that rate and forcing more water to pond or run off instead of recharging groundwater.

🎮 How to Use

Set storm intensity, basin footprint area and soil hydraulic conductivity, then toggle the sediment forebay on or off. Watch the pond depth, clogging layer and glowing infiltration droplets respond, and see the aquifer water table rise as recharge accumulates.

💡 Did You Know?

Infiltration basin design is fundamentally a race between hydraulic conductivity and clogging — engineers size basins generously and schedule maintenance precisely because the "sustainable" infiltration rate of a real basin is always lower than a lab-measured soil permeability.

⚙ Under the hood

groundwaterinfiltrationaquiferstormwaterbasinhydraulic conductivitywater tableThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install